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Why We Often Worry Too Much, and Sometimes Not Enough

The Times Opinionator column has launched an engaging series of posts examining anxiety and why we often worry too much, and sometimes not enough. I’m cross-linking because these posts relate nicely to examinations here of the “dread to risk ratio” in arenas ranging from shale gas drilling (a k a fracking) to nuclear power, toxic chemicals to climate.

First he describes research by Paul Slovic, Baruch Fischhoff and others that has shown how emotional responses to the world, — “fear factors,” as Ropeik calls them — make risks feel more or less frightening than science and statistics say would be rational. He lists three such factors:

Human-made risks upset us more than risks which are natural.
Risks imposed on us are scarier than those we take by choice.
Risks grow scarier the greater the pain and suffering they cause.

Here’s an important line:

There are plenty of very real environmental dangers to worry about, and all of them — including mercury, pesticides and hazardous waste — merit some concern and precaution; but that concern should be measured, commensurate with the actual danger, as best we understand it. How can we achieve that sort of measured understanding? To start, we can get more information from independent sources and challenge our own beliefs. We can avoid relying solely on the often-alarmist news media, or on friends who only reinforce how we already feel.

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By 2050 or so, the human population is expected to pass nine billion. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. Dot Earth was created by Andrew Revkin in October 2007 -- in part with support from a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship -- to explore ways to balance human needs and the planet's limits.